


Life Is Rather Pleasant, Actually - A Life Is Strange/Stardew Valley AU idea

by EHC



Series: AU ideas [5]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: But I just had to type it out, F/F, I know, another dumb idea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:41:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22194961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EHC/pseuds/EHC
Summary: What do you do when your life is seemingly perfect but utterly unsatisfying? When you have everything you thought you've ever wanted, but still feel like there's something missing? When you're young, beautiful, talented, and a shining beacon of the corporate world, yet the only thing you crave is to escape?In Victoria's case, she quits her job, sells off nearly everything, and starts a new life on her grandfather's old farm.
Relationships: Victoria Chase/Everyone
Series: AU ideas [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1596307
Comments: 17
Kudos: 26





	Life Is Rather Pleasant, Actually - A Life Is Strange/Stardew Valley AU idea

Victoria Chase. Young and upcoming business woman. Career-oriented. Driven to succeed. And nearly drives herself into an early grave.

For, despite all of her successes, graduating Summa Cum Laude at college, rising up the corporate ladder through hard work, fierce determination, and a vicious streak that would give even a Third-World dictator pause, she was completely miserable. The stress, the constant backstabbing, the sheer distrust she felt for her peers, and the utter lack of any meaningful companionship with any other person, all took their toll on the young woman until one evening, as she sat in her penthouse apartment, feeling utterly depressed, a bottle of Jack in one hand and a fistful of pills in the other, she finally remembered the letter her grandfather had given her when she was but a little girl and the solemn words he had spoken:

> There will come a day when you feel crushed by the burden of modern life, and your bright spirit will fade before a growing emptiness. When that happens, my beloved granddaughter, you'll be ready for this gift.

Booze and drugs forgotten, she staggers to her room, digs through her belongings, and finds that precious letter, hand-written by the one family member she never really understood, but who loved her with all his heart. She breaks the seal, and reads:

> If you're reading this, you must be in dire need of a change. The same thing happened to me, long ago. I'd lost sight of what mattered most in life... real connections with other people and nature. So I dropped everything and moved to the place I truly belong.

There was more, of course, along with a deed and title for a plot of farmland that Grandpa owned and managed, which he left to her. Later, she would marvel at the sheer legal intricacies Grandpa used to keep this land out of the hands of others, especially developers, so that even years after his death, she would easily take over ownership, no strings attached.

But, that was later. For now, she curled up into a ball on the floor, and wept.

* * *

Victoria Chase. Young and upcoming business woman, who shocks the hell out of her immediate family by quitting her job, selling her penthouse and nearly all of her material possessions, and drives away. They think she's completely out of her mind. They can't see that she's done the impossible and escaped. Now, she's going to live, free from the stress and burdens of a life that brought her no joy, no happiness, no love.

At least, that's the _very_ optimistic plan. Once she reaches her new/old farm, it only takes her 17 seconds to realize she was way, way, _way_ the fuck over her head. The land was overgrown, the farmhouse appeared more than a bit rickety (though the interior was clean, due in part to the efforts of the mayor, a close friend of Grandpa's), there were fallen logs everywhere, and the ground itself was littered with enough rocks to repave the highway she used to get here. But, dammit, if there one truism in Victoria's life, it was that she was one stubborn bitch. She'd be damned if a little bit of dirt was going to scare her away. So, come hell of high-water, she was going to make this fucking farm hers.

And profitable. Old habits die hard, after all.

So, she gets to work. Hoeing. Plowing. Digging. Chopping. Building and rebuilding. Planting and harvesting. And, as time goes on, meeting and greeting. The locals. People who knew her Grandpa, who extended a hand of friendship to her for no other reason than they were nice. And expected nothing in return. It was... different. But a good different.

Victoria did have a fear that she was going to be the only person under 50 in the valley, meaning she would be rather lonely, but that fear turned out to be utterly baseless. There were plenty of people around her age to meet. What she didn't anticipate was that so many of them would be very single and very gay:

  * Max, resident photographer and quite skilled, though her dreams of getting her work published and featured nationally was hampered by her severe social anxiety and self-doubt.
  * Kate, the quietly religious girl who spent her free time tutoring the youngest children in the Valley, and lived with her deadbeat mother.
  * Chloe, high school drop out, punk, who still held a lot of repressed anger over the death of her father.
  * Rachel, wannabe fashion model, who at first glance seemed as shallow as the people Victoria had left behind, though there was something else there.
  * Steph, who worked part time and the Valley's clinic and had a fondness for astronomy.
  * Dana, who absolutely loved sports of all types, and was no slouch in the athletic department herself.
  * Juliet, reporter, constantly trying to get the latest dirt on JojaMart and runs an online campaign to expose corporate corruption.
  * Brooke, who's in charge of the fish/boat shop in the Valley. Her family owns two other shops around the state.
  * Taylor, who runs the museum in the Valley, and is always ready to tell Victoria the history of whatever artifact she's brought in that particular day.
  * Courtney, young professional who manages the local JojaMart. She reminds Victoria of everything she left behind, much to her consternation. But is Courtney also seeing a few cracks in her seemingly perfect life?
  * Alyssa, who surprises the hell out of Victoria when she reveals she's the town's blacksmith.
  * Stella, proprietor of the Stardrop Saloon, pretty much the town's central hub.



Who knew that Grandpa's last gift to her, the farm, and his last wish, for her to establish real connections with people and nature, would turn Victoria into one huge gay mess?

**Author's Note:**

> Just an amusing little throwaway idea that's been on the backburner for quite some time. I'm posting it now because, between bouts of crippling depression and abject frustration over not being able to word good on Worthy, this is something that I actually managed to produce cleanly. Sorry, again, for the delay on Worthy!
> 
> I'll admit, this is less a fic idea and more of a mental reskin of the Stardew Valley video game, replacing several in-game characters with Life Is Strange ones, pretty much for shits and giggles. As someone who's played the game, I've made myself chuckle quite a bit, imagining the Life Is Strange cast rendered in 2D, 16-bit graphics, while fishing, farming, and dungeon crawling.
> 
> Stardew Valley features, amongst other things, [12 eligible singles](https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Marriage), 6 male and 6 female. You can, at your discretion, interact with, "date," and eventually marry any of them. Orientation doesn't matter. Be cautious, though: if your relationship grows very high with multiple potential partners without you ever committing to one, they will eventually corner you and lambast you for being a cad!
> 
> For the curious, [Abigail](https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Abigail) was my girl of choice and the only one I actually married, though I was also fond of Leah, Penny, and Maru, in that order. Abigail does have a rather interesting background that I won't spoil here but can be found in her trivia section. While there's no in-game impact to discovering this about her, it does make for an interesting tale and perfect fodder for a fanfic or three.


End file.
